Camburg wasn't mentioned, but just started making upper arms. Look at them here . Camburg is one of the best in the business when it comes to offroad fabrication.

 

Actually they are, well sort of...... Feartoy has Camburg stuff on his....

 

From all our pictures of the rear ends, I beleive we all are within 1" of each other in droop and stuff.

Chris

 

OK, I stopped by Total Chaos today, to check out their operation.
All I can say is very nice...... I did ask a few questions, the one's pertaining to the stock length Uniball A-arms. They did say that they've had a few reports of the arm slightly brushing the shock tower. As for the bolt punching a hole thru the inner fender well, they've had no reports of that occurring but have had light contact with it. Not too sure which models that this has occurred on, but each of those problems can be easily remedied. As for loss of travel, the only thing that does that are the coilovers, the donahoe's give 1" more down travel than the SAW's.

http://www.chaosfab.com/products/tacoma/uniballucas.jpg

I went over to Kartek and asked about the life expectancy of the 1" uniball, Mike said "Under racing conditions around 2 years and on the street at least 4 years". I guess I won't be carrying one of them as a spare!

While I was there, I grabbed a few goodies, after Steve had his problems with his tire carrier spindle breaking, I decided to try a different approach, this is what I'm gonna use for my hinge:

 

Bruce thats the one i use on mine

 

LOL, are you using the graphite impregnated delrin bushings?

 

how much of a wider stance in the front-due you gain??

 

You won't get a wider stance by just getting upper arms, if thats what you mean.

 

that is what i meant- thanks for clearing that up- i saw a post earlier- stating, "they give a wider stance"- it confused me.

 

OK, I did a test today to see how much flex, but unfortunately I don't have any blocks high enough to really do a proper test. Here's a shot with the right front wheel 2' off the ground. Take under consideration that I still haven't mounted the front bumper/winch and any skid plates yet. The rear is pretty much stock, except for the OME shocks and springs.

 

Sweet! I want to see a ton of pics of that thing! Was the front wheel stuffed all the way or was there a lot more room for more flex?

Chris

 

There was a lot more room, but it won't compress all the way yet. Not enough weight up front, once my bumper arrives and I install it, I'll be able to do a real world test. Maybe I'll fabricate a ramp in a few weeks, that way I'll be able to see exactly how far it will go.

I have the limit straps set so they stop before the max droop, I figure they'll stretch, besides playing it safe.

 

I'd be very interested to see if you could continue to lift the front wheel and get it to compress fully before you lift the rear tire. That's what I would like to see. Also, I'm going to do some testing on mine eventually where I lift one rear tire and the opposing front tire for the most extreme flex that my 4runner can achieve. I want to do some measurements and see what were looking at in comparison.

Chris

 

Considering it was still totally stable, it'll be fun seeing just how far it will go, nothing was rubbing or binding.

Now that's a thought, I can put blocks in front of the left rear wheel too, then ride up on it. That should make it flex to the max, I'll have to do that next.........

 

My guess is you won't have enough weight to compress the high side shock. Its really hard to compare flex without standardizing how its done. I've read R. Brown's method of putting a regular tire ramp on opposite corners of the vehicle to get "twisted" flex shots- you get more flex traveling less distance, and the rear opposite-corner block forces some weight onto the opposite front corner to help compress the shock. If we all had the same ramps with same angle and length, a real comparison could be made.

 

I agree David! One way would be to have two forklifts lift each opposing tire up till the either of the other two tires lifted off the ground. That would be a true test, but a pain in the butt.

Chris

 

Here's some similar shots of what we could try to duplicate among some other good flex shots:















Chris

 

Could always use the RTI standard


http://4crawler.cruiserpages.com/4x4...cks/Ramp.shtml

I'm gonna try blocking up a pair of auto ramps..........

But then again I still need to modify the rear suspension, but that will have to wait til after the new year.......

 

A few pictures, from today of my ride, at the Gold Coast Cruisers Bear Camp Christmas Party. I wish I had a few of me comming down this one ridge, I had my left front and right rear off the ground, it would have been a better shot for comparison.

 

another from the rightside